History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s4.11

c12.s4.11

Gosāla’s statement that the object which he had been holding was not a mango stone but a mango skin is probably to be read in the context of the four substitutes for drink, as laid down by Gosāla in his delirium. The ascetic undertaking the final Ājīvika penance, which involved ritual suicide by slow starvation, was permitted to hold a raw mango in his mouth, without sucking its juice or eating it.¹ The presence of a mango stone in Gosāla’s hand would have indicated to Ayampula that he had broken his own rule by eating the flesh of the fruit. Hence he is purported to have denied that it was a mango stone. His exhortation to Ayampula to play the *vīṇā* is perhaps connected with the two *mārgas*, stated by the commentator to be song and dance, which he is said to have ordained at the conference with the six *disācaras*.² There is reason to believe that we have here a further Jaina attempt to ascribe an unworthy origin to later Ājīvika practice.